In It To Win 2016!

Happy New Year! 2016 will be amazing….

Thank you so much for all of our family and friends (and others) who read our blog. Corrin and I have worked forever so it is really weird for us not to be doing a million lesson plans and having a million things on our plate.

We started the blog out of purely selfish reason….we wanted to have an avenue where we could actually feel like we were accomplishing something.

We are worker bees so we are not used to not having things to do 24/7. (We are not saying that being a stay at home mom is not a lot of work but I wrote a blog about this…being a working mom is a lot harder…in my opinion…but it is my opinion.) These past two years have been amazing. We have had the opportunity to both slow down and focus on our families. We loved being teachers…but let’s face it..teaching is one of the hardest jobs EVER. It is a struggle to be an awesome mom/wife/mother…and awesome teacher….life is life and sometimes, something has to give…

We have been given feedback about our blog and love the feedback we have been given. You guys are awesome and pump us up. You have no idea how much your sweet words/comments mean to us.

We want to continue blogging but WE NEED YOUR HELP. It is VERY hard coming up with new material.

What can you do?

1)Be a guest blogger! I promise you that your story is way more interesting than you think it is.

Example: We had a family friend that blogged about putting her daughter in pageant. It was VERY interesting. Even if you don’t have children, the entire situation was very interesting and informative.

Everyone has an interesting story to tell. We would love for you to share your story.

2) Give us ideas: We try to come up with fun stuff to blog about but sometimes it is hard!!!! Give us suggestions!!!!!! We love hearing feedback!

3)Give us feedback…The good, the bad, the ugly….We have thick skin and appreciate feedback.

4) If you see a story on our blog that you think another person would benefit from, share it. Your friend is building a pool and has two small babies. Our blogs on survival swim (or pool safety items) are important to us. You read our blog about colonoscopies and think maybe you should look into this……It’s all about sharing information to make our lives easier and better.

Anyone who has been following our blog knows that we are always trying to get fit. We have gone through two weight loss challenges.

How did the last (second weight loss challenge) end?

Corrin and I were actually the biggest losers (me the most inches lost and Corrin the most pounds lost) for our last twelve week weight loss challenge. I honestly think we were the biggest losers because we scheduled exercise into our schedule five days a week. It was like scheduling an appointment. Every time we participate in a challenge, we learn knew things.

What did we learn the second challenge?

You cannot lose weight without doing some type of exercise and eating better. Period…You can’t have one or another….it has to be a combination of both.

Nothing in life worth having is easy….and if it seems to good to be true…it probably is…If you don’t like to exercise and you want to eat whatever you want….well…At least you accept that things will not change….because they won’t. THE ONLY MAGICALWAY TO LOSE WEIGHT AND TO KEEP IT OFF IS THROUGH EXERCISING SOME AN EATING BETTER. PERIOD

2. Camaraderie is important. You have to have people to lean on. Having our group facebook page is important. We post things almost daily on this support group page. Most of our posting are funny memes we see on the internet. This group encouragement keeps you going.

3. You need to create a challenge with bench markers along the way. For the first challenge, we went the twelve weeks with having no bench mark points, just a biggest loser for inches and weight. We learned that going twelve weeks without anything in between was too long. For our second challenge, we implemented weekly goals and rewards. As a former teacher, I could never teach my students by saying “Here is this topic…” Everything had to be divided into “smaller chunks.” The same goes for adults. We needed weekly accountability challenges to stay focused. If you do a three month challenge, break it up into pieces.

We are starting our third challenge : Ten Weeks Until Spring Break!!!

What will we do different for the third time?

Writing, writing, writing (in a journal)

We feel that writing things down will make us more accountable. We have established a point system for keeping track of things. If we are forced to write things down, maybe we will think harder about our choices.

Every participant is creating an “Exercise Bible.” For ten weeks, we will be journaling our experience. We are also creating a “point component” to our competition that makes us accountable for things. If someone works a million hours a week and can’t work out as much, she can gain points through other avenues.

2. You have to adjust: One of our team members has diabetes. She has to have a carbohydrate (whole wheat toast everyday)….hence we adjust:)

3. Put this in your schedule: Schedule your exercise and meal prep as if it were a doctor appointment that you have to go to. If you don’t make it a priority, you won’t follow through with it.

4. Put on your workout clothes: If you put them on, you will feel 100 percent guilty if you don’t follow through and actually work out. Just do it!

Here is our plan:

In It To Win It 10 Week Ready for Spring Break Challenge!

Points you can earn each day:

Journal: Write down everything eat/exercise: 5 points

No alcohol (Monday-Thursday): 5 points

No alcohol on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday: 10 points

No sugar: 5 points

One piece of whole wheat toast or less a day: 5 points

Drinking half of your body weight in ounces: 5 points

Exercise for 20 minutes 5 points

Exercise for 30 minutes: 10 points

Exercise for 40 minutes: 15 points

Exercise for 50 minutes: 20 points

Exercise for 60 minutes: 25 points

Weights incorporated in exercise: 5 points

Writing one positive thing in your Weight Loss Bible: 5 points

Money:

If 7 of us: $35each: total pot $245

Week 1 Person with most points $10

Week 2 Person with most pounds lost $10

Week 3 Person with most inches lost $10

Week 4 Person with most points (week 2-4) $10

Week 5 Person with most pounds lost from week 3-5 $10

Week 6 Person with most inches lost week 4-6 $10

Week 7 Most minutes Mon-Friday exercising: $10

Week 8 Most points (week 5-8) $10

Week 9 Person who eats the cleanest from Mon-Friday $10

Week 10: End:

Total weight loss: 60

Total inches lost: 60

Most points champion: 35

Our advice:

You are in a rut and want to lose a few pounds. You know that you can’t do this alone.

Get a group of people together: It doesn’t matter…You can get two, three, four, etc.

2) Come up with a plan: Copy our plan. Create a Facebook challenge and stick to it. Create a timeline and guidelines and get started!!!!!

3) Cheer each other on.

4) Buy a fitbit: Have everyone in the group get a fitbit and incorporate the fitbit into the challenge. Peer pressure is awesome. You can get on group challenges through the fitbit app.

5)Stakes: Have everyone put in some money. You have to have some sort of buy in.

6)Celebration: When your timeline ends, have a group celebration!!!!!

We are doing a ten week challenge. You can get your friends together and do the same. It will be fun to see if any other groups are created and do a ten week challenge too!